LOOKING FOR JESUS!

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
Where does it say "Antichrist"? It says MAN of SIN. THEY of that day were to know who he was. He was their contemporary. Second Thessalonians was written to the THESSALONIANS of THAT day about things that were going to happen to THEM in THEIR day. This is not about us.
except none of it did happen ... if the church had been raptured who are we?
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
By Hal Lindsey

If we are living near the time of Christ’s return—and I am convinced we are—should that fact influence the way we live? The Bible gives us instructions that apply in any time period. Those truths do not change as the day of the Lord approaches. We live according to certain principles and those principles do not change. However, even though God’s standards do not change, the Bible does teach us to respect the danger of such times, and to adjust our lives accordingly.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB) says, “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.”

Where the New American Standard Bible says “stimulate,” the King James Version says, “provoke.” Both are English translations of a Greek word that literally means to “incite.” Incite one another to love and to do good deeds. The best place to do that is in regular gatherings.

During Covid lockdowns, verse 25 became a rallying cry for many churches. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (KJV). It is fundamental. We see Christians getting together on a regular basis all through the New Testament, just as God’s people did in the Old Testament. In the United States, it became a First Amendment struggle. Politicians and bureaucrats seemed intent on shutting down churches, while many churches were just as intent on finding ways to follow God’s word.

It has always been needful and right for Christians to gather regularly in worship and fellowship, for purposes of discipleship, encouragement, charity, and evangelism. Verse 25 says that this need will grow in the last of the last days. It says to do these things “all the more, as you see the day drawing near.”

What day? The day of the Lord. That’s a time period mentioned prominently in both the Old and New Testaments that begins at the time of the tribulation. This is especially interesting for us right now. The rapture will happen before the tribulation, so we won’t see the tribulation itself. However, we can see signs that the day of the Lord is coming quickly, and that should have a powerful impact on our behavior.

In such a time, we are to intensify our efforts to encourage one another in love, faith, and good works. We are to bind ourselves to one another. The untethered will be swept off into tides of despair. They will still be saved—still go to heaven—but their Christian testimony on earth will become weak and ineffective. They will lose peace. The joy of the Lord that should be giving them strength will be dampened by waves of guilt and discouragement.

We need one another—especially in times like these. We need fellowship in church and beyond. We need to laugh together, cry together, and talk with one another. As we talk, we help each other understand the turmoils of the day from Christian perspectives. Godly fellowship gives Christian context to the world around us. And that is encouraging.

No one is above this need. That’s why it is so crucial to visit those who can’t leave home or are confined to hospitals or nursing homes. Just your face can bring joy and encouragement into a dark place or a difficult time.

2 Timothy 3 speaks of the last days as a time of peril as people act in selfish ways, sowing confusion and deceit. Verse 13 (NKJV) says, “Evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Paul’s answer was to encourage young Timothy to continue in sound doctrine, trusting the word of God as His guide. That is a lesson from the Holy Spirit for Christians of all generations—but especially for times like these.


 
J

JAPOV

Guest
Planetary Disasters
By Hal Lindsey
It’s not your imagination. Things are bad—as bad as you thought—and maybe worse. It might not be a surprise to hear me say it, but how about hearing it from the United Nations? Last week the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) released a stunning report. According to UNDRR, “between 350 and 500 medium- to large-scale disasters took place every year over the past two decades.” That’s a mind-boggling 5-times the disaster-rate of previous decades. And, they say, it’s getting worse.


Some of those disasters were naturally occurring, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Others came as a result of what UNDRR calls “a broken perception of risk based on optimism, underestimation and invincibility.” Mami Mizutori, the Head of UNDRR, said, “By deliberately ignoring risk and failing to integrate it in decision making, the world is effectively bankrolling its own destruction.”

Optimism can be a good thing, but not when it blinds us to danger. When I hear the words “optimism, underestimation and invincibility,” I think of world leaders ignoring what God says, and naively going their own way. In their haughtiness, they disregard right and wrong. Convinced of their own brilliance, they assure the rest of us that everything will turn out okay. Meanwhile, they willingly risk long-term catastrophe for short-term gain.

It happens in almost every area of public life. Leaders repeatedly choose immediate political or monetary gain over what’s really best. We see it when politicians try to buy elections using deficit spending. We see it when businesses warehouse as little as possible, including food. This makes everyone vulnerable to even small supply chain disruptions. But it increases profits—at least in the short run.


The United States government is now releasing a million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The government hopes to appease angry voters by lowering the price of gasoline a few cents a gallon. Our leaders ignore the fact that in the present state of the world, the country might soon need every bit of that Reserve. It’s another case where they ignore long-term solutions in favor of quick and easy actions that turn out to be more symbolic than substantive.

There are too few Josephs among us—too few men and women with the vision to prepare nations in good times for difficulties ahead.

If you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, the best thing you can do is get word of His wondrous salvation to as many people as possible. Those who know Jesus need not live in fear, even when the world is “bankrolling its own destruction.” But we need to spread the good news with urgency.

As for you personally, remember Psalms 91:1. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (NASB). In his book, Till Armageddon, Billy Graham said it like this. “The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
Where does it say "Be deliberately obtuse"? The Man of Sin is the Antichrist, and he has many other names and titles besides.
I've decide to take solace in the fact that there's so many here who OBVIOUSLY just want to argue. Not only are they easy to spot, but they're PROOF that God has not changed and the Spirit is still at work! :cool:
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
The Global Threat of Putin’s Deterioration
By Hal Lindsey
Jesus said that war and rumors of war would mark the time before His return. Skeptics point out that there have always been both. Jesus clearly meant that end-time wars and messages about them would somehow be more extreme. With the use of atomic weapons, war changed at the end of World War II. Those weapons have not been used in battle since then, but thousands have been made and, through the years, made even deadlier. With the fall of the Soviet Union, most people were lulled into thinking the world was safe from nuclear destruction. But it isn’t true.

This year things have grown much worse. It’s not just that the war in Ukraine involves a nation loaded to the teeth with hydrogen bombs. During the nuclear era, both the United States and Russia fought various wars. The difference this time is the deterioration of the man with his finger on the nuclear button.

A few days ago, Vladimir Putin gave a warning to those nations helping Ukraine. “If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside, they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia. They must know that our response to counterstrikes will be lightning fast. Fast. We have all the weapons we need for this. No one else can brag about these weapons, and we won’t brag about them. But we will use them.”

Over the last few years, Putin has made several direct and indirect threats to use nuclear weapons. But now the threats come almost every week. At the same time, intelligence sources are warning about significant changes in the man who runs Russia. Putin has become more erratic. His decisions are increasingly paranoid and self-destructive.

The former Russian spy Boris Karpichkov claims Putin is “obsessed by paranoid ideas…. He sees literally everyone, including those inside the Russian security services and even inside his close inner circle, to be ‘traitors.’” More concerning still, Karpichkov claims that Mr. Putin suffers from the early stages of dementia.

The Russian president’s recent appearances on camera illustrate the fact that something is terribly wrong. He appears bloated and uncomfortable. He has been seen gripping the desk before him with white knuckles for extended periods. After watching a video of Putin, a body language expert from Texas Tech University, Professor Erik Bucy, said, “It’s an astonishingly weakened Putin.”

Yevgeny Selivanov, a surgeon at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital, is reported to have met Putin at the leader’s Black Sea resort some thirty-five times. Selivanov wrote his thesis on the “treatment of elderly and senile patients with thyroid cancer.”

Putin has always been extremely self-centered, with a touch of paranoia. But Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine seems to have amplified his paranoia to new levels. He may also suffer from cancer and Parkinson’s disease, along with early dementia. In his deteriorating mental and physical state, he may be feeling that he has little to lose.

And he controls the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the planet. He’s fighting a major war in Europe. And he regularly threatens the whole world with his nuclear weapons. There has never been a threat like him in the history of the world. Surely his present war and the war he threatens qualify as new and more extreme kinds of war and rumors of war. According to the Bible, it will get worse before it gets better.

But this is a “lift up your heads” kind of moment. We should see the Putin-threat as another sign of the times. Combined with all the other signs, it seems obvious that we are getting close to the time of Christ’s return. And that, friends, is good news!
 

BeeThePeace

Active member
May 2, 2022
443
135
43
Good post/article.
---
I remember..Hal Lindsey.
- Making the 'end times prediction'..
As the article said..
- 1988
- 1948+40
I always doubt anyone who gives a date of the second coming.

No one knows, not rven the son of man.Only God.

For me, that settles it.
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
I always doubt anyone who gives a date of the second coming.

No one knows, not rven the son of man.Only God.

For me, that settles it.
You know what's strange? The only people I ever find criticizing Hal Lindsey and quoting disreputable sources are other Christians with scriptural axes to grind....

I graduated high school in 84, and joined the military in 86. If Hal said the rapture was going to happen in 88 then how did I miss it?

I sure wish you "hateful and argumentative" Christians would provide a quote...
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
How to Flourish in Dark Times
By Hal Lindsey
No one is exempt from pain or discouragement. Humans have suffered these things since God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. But some points in time are more difficult than others. Most of the world is now living through an especially tough period. Long ago, God told us how to flourish in dark times. His answer to our dilemma stands as a brilliant point of light—especially right now.


Recently, I wrote about the rising threat of nuclear war. Unable to fix the problem, most people push that concern to the backs of their minds. But even from the background, atomic fears loom over the world’s thinking, and cast a deep shadow across the planet.

In the last few weeks, supply chain issues have gone from an inconvenience to a potential catastrophe on several fronts. Young families wonder if they will be able to get the baby formula they need, or if they can afford to buy the fuel necessary to get to work. Renters are wondering how many rate hikes before they are left homeless. Older homeowners worry that rising tax assessments portend a time when their property taxes will evict them.

For the first time in a generation, Americans feel the dread of hyperinflation. They wonder how long the current rise will last and how high it will go. The city of Midland, Texas has been experiencing a 10% inflation rate for the last six months. But that’s good compared to the country of Turkey where the inflation rate is 70%, or to Argentina where it’s 55%.

Inflation frightens people because most can’t do anything about it. It makes them feel vulnerable. In 2018, Venezuela’s inflation rate exceeded 100,000%. At that level, forget about retirement funds. The money becomes nothing. Such thoughts often lead to despair.

Then there is Covid-19. The plague appears to have passed its peak. Yet for millions around the world, Covid lingers in the form of long-haul symptoms. Even medical experts don’t always take such complaints as seriously as they should. While symptoms vary, almost all long-haulers experience great fatigue. Imagine suffering from something you know is real, but your family and even your doctors do not understand. More despair.

And human despair is the devil’s playground. When I released Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth back in 1972, many Christians had forgotten that Satan even exists. Others saw him as a cartoon character with horns and a pitchfork. But the devil is real. He’s a person, and he is not alone. He and his hordes are the enemies of God and humanity. Like all smart thieves and terrorists, they enter at points of weakness. Their main weapons are fear and despair.

You might think scripture would emphasize such a spectacular villain. But while the Bible tells us what we need to know about the devil, he is not the main topic. We are in a spiritual war best fought on God’s turf. That means an emphasis—not on darkness—but on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Those are the gifts of the Spirit. If you are in Christ, they are His gifts to you — gifts that Satan cannot steal. Ask Him for them and choose to receive them.

My prayer for you in this hour is the same as Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18-19 (NASB). He wrote, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

God’s answer is to know Him. May all our hearts be enlightened to the breathtaking hope of His calling, the astounding riches of His glorious inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
 

BeeThePeace

Active member
May 2, 2022
443
135
43
You know what's strange? The only people I ever find criticizing Hal Lindsey and quoting disreputable sources are other Christians with scriptural axes to grind....

I graduated high school in 84, and joined the military in 86. If Hal said the rapture was going to happen in 88 then how did I miss it?

I sure wish you "hatefuland argumentative" Christians would provide a quote...
Hateful argumentative Christians?

No. Christians following sage advice. Do not believe every spirit but test them.

Those who choose to follow men are required to do that as well. What I find is many of those follow withiut discernment or testing, or researching the teachings of those men.

Then they turn hateful ,accusatory and argumentative against those who have .
 

GRACE_ambassador

Well-known member
Feb 22, 2021
3,218
1,614
113
Midwest
You know what's strange? The only people I ever find criticizing Hal Lindsey and quoting disreputable sources are other Christians with scriptural axes to grind....

I graduated high school in 84, and joined the military in 86. If Hal said the rapture was going to happen in 88 then how did I miss it?

I sure wish you "hateful and argumentative" Christians would provide a quote...
Not sure if it was Harold Camping or Edgar Whisenant that get the idiocy credit
for the 1988 fiasco. Either way it should be a lesson for all "speculators, prognosticators, calculators, and GUESSERS" of end-time dates that:

Since God Teaches That Great GRACE Departure Is Imminent, that
they TOO Will Also join in on "a prophetic 100% Failure Rate," Correct?

I'll simply "stay With God" Who Is 100% Successful! Amen?

GRACE And Peace...
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
Hateful argumentative Christians?

No. Christians following sage advice. Do not believe every spirit but test them.

Those who choose to follow men are required to do that as well. What I find is many of those follow withiut discernment or testing, or researching the teachings of those men.

Then they turn hateful ,accusatory and argumentative against those who have .
Of course you do... :rolleyes:

I like Hal Lindsey because he never fails to illustrate how the Bible interprets itself....

I'm fairly certain you can't provide a "quote", or provide evidence that you have "tested his spirit..."

False witness much?
 

BeeThePeace

Active member
May 2, 2022
443
135
43
Of course you do... :rolleyes:

I like Hal Lindsey because he never fails to illustrate how the Bible interprets itself....

I'm fairly certain you can't provide a "quote", or provide evidence that you have "tested his spirit..."

False witness much?
You just proved the point. Certain followers of men won't vet those they follow. Then, like you just exampled, they become accusatory, hateful and argumentative.

Quotes? If you believe in Hal, keep on. 🙂
 

BeeThePeace

Active member
May 2, 2022
443
135
43
Not sure if it was Harold Camping or Edgar Whisenant that get the idiocy credit
for the 1988 fiasco. Either way it should be a lesson for all "speculators, prognosticators, calculators, and GUESSERS" of end-time dates that:

Since God Teaches That Great GRACE Departure Is Imminent, that
they TOO Will Also join in on "a prophetic 100% Failure Rate," Correct?

I'll simply "stay With God" Who Is 100% Successful! Amen?

GRACE And Peace...
I know of Harold Camping, not the other guy.

Camping is dead now but he acrued a fortune as a false end times "profit". Not, p r o p h e t. And for decades.

One poor deluded follower willed her entire estate to his ministry. Mind you, he'd at that point predicted the second coming was to occur within the year!
The woman's daughter tried to fight the bequeathment in court, but lost.

Gulliblity makes wolves very rich.
 
J

JAPOV

Guest
The EU Takes Charge
By Hal Lindsey
The European Union is in the final stages of enacting a law called “the Digital Services Act.” They say it establishes accountability measures for online platforms operating in the EU. But in reality, it gives the EU censorship power over most of the earth’s primary communication platforms.


According to the Search Engine Journal, “The DSA [Digital Services Act] aims to protect internet users by establishing an ‘unprecedented new standard’ for online platforms that will see companies such as Google, Meta (Facebook), and Twitter held accountable for illegal and harmful content.”

That raises two massive questions. First, accountable to whom? With just a little reading, the answer becomes clear. They will be accountable to European bureaucrats. The second question is, who decides what content is harmful and what is not? The answer to the second question is the same as the answer to the first—EU bureaucrats.

Under this law, the online platforms are supposed to police their own users. But when they are compelled to do so by a government, it is still government censorship. Ultimately, it’s all about the global elites, and silencing those who oppose their political agendas.

At first, it may seem like this law only affects people in the EU, but in fact it affects every person using an internet service that does business in the EU. That means Alphabet (including Google and YouTube), Meta (including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), Twitter, Microsoft, and even Amazon. What might Amazon sell that would offend the elites? How about books and videos by conservatives in general and Christians in particular?

The European Commission is considered the executive branch of the EU government. The Commission put out a press release saying, “The DSA sets out an unprecedented new standard for the accountability of online platforms regarding illegal and harmful content.”
Note again that they are not just suppressing “illegal content,” but also “harmful content.” And the EU decides what is and what is not “harmful.”


The European Commission’s press release quoted one of their own, Margrethe Vestager. She said the DSA will “prevent dangerous disinformation from going viral.” Think about the breadth of that promise. It means intense and comprehensive policing of the “world wide web.”

In case it wasn’t clear who will be in charge, the Commission’s press release quoted another of their own, Thierry Breton. He said the DSA “entrusts the Commission with supervising very large platforms.”

The European Commission will be in charge. They will supervise the results of your Google search and which items show up on your Facebook page.

The Bible is clear that the Antichrist will arise from a revived Roman Empire. In other words, he will be a European. From there, he will eventually rule the world. And the groundwork for his power is already being laid from Europe to the whole earth.